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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Saturday's Gem - Root Beer Agate

Root Beef Agate like Carnelian is also a microcrystalline from the quartz group. You will find that many of the semi precious stones used in making jewelry will come from a few main groups but the variations in coloring and inclusions are what will make them strikingly different. Just like any agate Root Beer Agate is usually translucent - opaque and has variation in colors from a lighter brown to darker brown. Agate is slowly formed from silica-rich precipitate (liquid) filling a cavity in different host rocks, a common host is lava. The silica liquid eventually starts to settle and form the microcrystals creating layers until it is either filled (a Nodule) or filled partway leaving a hollow center often with larger crystals like quartz inside (a Geode.) This process is very different than the violent and often fast process that makes volcanic glass like obsidian. The reason it is called Root Beer Agate is because of this color, it looks like Root Beer.

Often the name of the Agate will simply describe the piece; Banded Agate has bands, and Lace Agate has a lacy pattern, but sometimes Agates are named after the areas on which they are found such as Mule Canyon etc. Root Beer Agate can be found throughout the US it just depends on what elements were available while the agate was forming causing its Root Beer brown coloring. I found mine on Central California beach.